Saturday, October 25, 2008

Well, The Truth Will Do It Almost Every Time...

Was told today by the therapist that I reveal too much to people that I meet. We are trying to get me to work a little less and prioritize my personal life a little more, and I thought I was doing that when I told my manager yesterday that I refused to go into work because I needed to take care of myself.

"He doesn't need to know that," she said. "Just 'no' works."

But, for the sake of humanity, I feel he does need to know that. My main argument when they decided to move me to the Oakland store and when they decided NOT to give me a raise to offset the increased cost of getting to work was that I could accept that if we could create a work/life balance for me.

'Course, the reason why I took the job with this company in the first place is because I was only supposed to work 40 hours a week. That was supposed to compensate for me being paid $30,000 less than my Bay Area counterparts.

Work/life balance...you would think I would catch a break. But apparently I can only do that if I say what I'm doing and not why.

*****

There's a scene in an episode of the West Wing where the press secretary for the administration in the show, a press secretary played with classy penache by Allison Janney, and the First Lady, played by Stockard Channing, are having a discussion about how to spin a delicate piece of news. Janney's character starts with her idea of spin with a comment that would be a "version" of the truth, and Channing's character says, "Why don't we just say (fill in the truth here)?" "Oh. Oh, okay," says Janney, a little taken aback.

"The truth will do it almost every time," says Channing, and sends the press secretary on her way.

Yes. You could just say it and not say why, or feel the need to explain why you said no.

Unless you are a customer service manager with a facilities management company. Then just say no.